Dustin

Reprinted from The Robb Report Collection, April 2003

Howard Becker of Becker Automotive Design can be considered the forerunner of the urban SUV scene with the stunning sound systems and luminescent interiors he built into customized SUVs for Will Smith and other music industry heavyweights in the mid-1990s. Becker still has his star-studded clientele, but he is now leading the evolution of SUV tuning into luxurious, high-tech mobile offices. Becker started out by turning Ford Excursions into luxuriously appointed limousines that would make a Maybach owner envious. Wireless Internet, onboard PCs with printers, surround-sound DVD systems with 20-inch screens, folding tables, and aircraft-style reclining seating are ready to serve for business or pleasure. Never one to stand pat, Becker has now turned his attention to converting Ford vans into sumptuously equipped land-bound equivalents of executive jets. He also sees a growing trend among his customers to armor their vehicles.

FANCY CONVERSIONS HAVE CAUGHT ON WITH MOBILE VIPS

Reprinted from the April 22nd, 2002 issue of Business Week

On the outside, it looks just like any other hulking $40,000 Ford Excursion or Chevy Suburban. But peek inside, and this is what you see: a personal limo that seats four or five with wet bar, deep pile carpeting, and luscious leather seats that recline to nearly horizontal. Press a button, and the divider between driver and passenger rises, revealing a wide screen television.

More and more, there’s an office tucked in there, too. The computer is nestled in the cargo area behind the rear seats (next to the refrigerator), with a wireless keyboard and mouse – plus printer, copier, and fax machine – in the passenger compartment. Want satellite phones for those annoying moments when your cell service fades in and out? That’s another option: four lines and a satellite Internet connection for $16,000, plus $1.19 per minute – perfect for video conferences.

Kareem Burke, better known as Biggs in the music industry, gets around in one of these babies. One of the three owners of Roc-A-Fella Records in New York, part of Universal Music Enterprises, he spends more time in his car than his office, crawling through traffic to meetings and music studios. He uses the time to listen to new artists, catch up on phone calls, and check e-mail. “It’s like having a Bentley or Gulfstream IV, but it’s hidden inside a Ford Excursion,” he says.

Burke paid a near-Bentley price, $200,000, for his Excursion at Becker Automotive Design in Oxnard, Calif. Howard Becker, 53, took over his father’s electronics store, but made his name installing custom sound systems in the cars of Hollywood celebrities. When the SUV craze hit in the early ’90s, he was well placed to do SUV conversions for them. “They wanted a big American SUV, but the hated the seats, the carpet, the fit and finish,” he says. What they wanted was the look and feel of a European luxury car, so Becker took off all the chrome, buffed up the paint job, used better wheels, and installed wood interiors, expensive sound systems, and luxury seats and carpets.

From there, it was a short step to personal limos for executives who already had a driver. They want privacy and a mobile-office environment but don’t want to attract attention or create resentment among their employees by plying the streets in a showy stretch limousine. As his business gravitated toward chauffeur-driven vehicles – nearly half of which are in the Northeast, according to Limousine and Chauffeured Transportation magazine – Becker shuttered his retail store outside Beverly Hills, Calif., and moved to an industrial park in Oxnard, 50 miles north of Los Angeles.

Becker has built 50 limos since 1998 and an equal number of SUV conversions for the drive-it-yourself crowd. Now, close to half his production goes to executives instead of celebrities, though he admits there’s overlap. Buyers include film producer Arnon Milchan, New Jersey Nets owner Lewis Katz, and New York real estate executive Andrew Farkas. Vincent Chhabra, chief executive of USA Prescription, an Internet pharmacy, will take delivery of his any day now. Diet queen Jenny Craig just ordered one as a gift for her husband Sidney.

Prices start at $85,000 for a basic Excursion limo with leather seats and no exotic woods. With a Rolls-Royce quality interior and all the executive toys, the price can easily top $200,000.

Since September 11, some customers are demanding even more: armor. Becker is happy to oblige. Enough steel and Kevlar and bulletproof glass to stop handgun fire will add about $65,000 to the tab. For that amount, you can travel in style, securely and productively – and completely incognito.

IF A MORE LUXURIOUSLY CONCEIVED SUBURBAN EXISTS, WE’VE NEVER SEEN IT.

Edited by Matt Stone

Reprinted from Motor Trend Magazine, June 1999

Actor/rapper Will Smith is on a roll: His recent movies are hits, his CDs bag sales and Grammy Honors, and he’s got a fabulous wife (actress Jada Pinkett). It probably goes without saying that he’s financially comfortable and can drive just about anything he wants. But you won’t see a million dollar McLaren F1 in the Smith/Pinkett driveway. Just an average, everyday Suburban. Sure. . .

To say that Will’s new Sub is an average truck is to say that Mark McGuire is an average hitter. Yes, it began life as an off-the-rack ’98 7.4 liter 2500 Suburban 4×4, but then Will turned it-and about $120,000-over to Becker Automotive Design. You may never have heard of Howard Becker, but folks like Barbara Striesand, Jerry Seinfeld, and Steven Spielberg know him well. They, and a host of other entertainment and business glitterati, are Becker’s customers. They want the best. And they can afford it.

Becker is known for designing and engineering Tinseltown’s most outrageous sound systems, yet it’s far more than just a stereo shop. “We approach the vehicle from three viewpoints: sound/entertainment, performance, and styling – both interior and exterior,” notes Becker, who’s been fiddling with star’s cars for better than 20 years.

Nearly every square inch of the Sub’s interior was stripped. Everything you can see, touch, or sit on has been redesigned and upgraded to Lear Jet quality levels. Custom bucket seats, front and rear, are upholstered in European leather, while the headliner and contrasting trim areas are done up in rich suede. The wool carpeting is the same as that found in a Rolls-Royce. The deliciously black Japanese ash burled-hardwood trim is custom made in Becker’s shop, as are the consoles, speaker enclosures, bracketry, and just about everything else inside.

There’s more communications gear in here that you’ll find in Air Force One. Its sound system is a mind – and ear – blowing combination of Sony, McIntosh, Soundstream, Kimbler, AVI, and dynaudio componentry, plus enough speakers to broadcast the Super Bowl. Toys? How about three liquid-crystal video monitors offering their services to a Sony DVD, stereo VHS, TV tuner, Nintendo 64, and Sony Playstation. Don’t forget the two cell phones, Phillips Carin Nav system, and the refrigerator in the back (no joke). Naturally, the entire truck’s electrical system was totally reengineered, using custom crossovers, the best speaker and electrical wire available, and no fewer than three batteries with s multiple charging system.

Colorado Custom 18-inch billet wheels are wrapped by Bridgestone Dueler HT Tires. The suspension received a through workover to improve handling, while dealing with the increased weight of the interior hardware – Will’s Suburban tips the scales at an all-conquering 7170 pounds! Anti-roll bars were enlarged front and rear, and most of the bushings were swapped for polyurethane pieces.

The stock 454 was treated to a Whipple supercharger, Thorley headers, custom exhaust, engine management system, and transmission shift program revisions, 4.56:1 front and rear diff gears, and a host of other powertrain upgrades. The exterior restyle is subtle yet imposing. Bumpers were smoothed out, custom fender flares fitted and a billet grille and set of Smittybilt running boards pretty much sum up the upgrades – with everything painted black.

But the real beauty is in the driving. You’re surrounded by lush materials, entrenched in home-theater-quality sound, and going faster than anything this big really ought to go. Despite its weighing some 1500 pounds more that a stock ¾-ton Suburban, Will’s Sub bellows to 60 mph in just 6.9 seconds (as opposed to 9.4 in unmodified form). We simply don’t have the room to adequately describe the depth of this rig’s metamorphoses, but suffice it to say that it’s extraordinary in every way. The world’s most awesome Sub? We say yes.